since more and more people are showing up on the trails with camcorders, perhaps a thread for advice for movie making, splicing and adding music, recommended camera settings, good mounts, bad mounts, pros and cons, etc. is in order.

so if you're having problems, just want advice, or have some cool suggestions, here's the place to voice it off and show your skills, or lack thereof. as there are a few photo aficionados aboard here, perhaps they can contribute and save the rest of us from a lot of missteps.

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okay, to start it off, getting a GoPro today and have a mac, but have not used iMovieHD before. should have a lot of queries forthcoming.


[*acknowledgement- stole this concept from another site.]

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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

iMovie is a waste of ram! Save for a real editor like Adobe Premier, or final cut. Or use illegal hacked vesrions if possible. Or just use the 30 day trials if you dont need much work done to it. I have an Epic helmet cam and I edit with Premier.

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"In a time of universal deciet, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell

i still record my vids with VHS.....

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'the notorious North County Sancho'

I just use a point and shoot mounted to the bars haha

Is this you?

lol.

yeah, that's His Highness with his VHS gear.

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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

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"In a time of universal deciet, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell

GoPro / Mac info:

loaded a vid from the GoPro cam to Mac's iMovieHD. vid was shot at GoPro recording settings, 720 @ 30fps setting (r2).

IMPORT METHOD:
MPEG4 import looked like watercolors on the TV. Washy even on a 15" laptop screen.

DV-Widescreen import was much better, but still a little bit washy on TV. on my laptop, not a lot different from HDV-720p import (next)

HD-760p import was very good on the TV. closest to playing the camcorder video file directly on the TV.

FILE SIZE USING iMOVIE:
i noticed the video i put together at HDV-720p after adding a title, a couple of transitions and some editing out, was approx 12 min and a whopping 7GB! Geez.

so okay i dropped a single 13.4MB video file from the GoPro into iMovie for comparison:
MPEG4 import: 2MB (slimmed down ~6.5x)
DV-Wide import: 45.8MB (bloated ~3.5x)
HDV-720p import: 97.3MB (bloated ~7x)


using iMovie, but will keep the original files in hopes to find a less bloated app to merge video files together.

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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

hahaha. I just figured how to properly save HD vids first on the cheap/free editor and import it on Vimeo with the recommended HD compression settings.
I'm the plug and play first before reading the manual kinda guy..at times.

I'm using the cam my wife bought for me, Drift HD170. Pretty neat.
Set it at 720p reso as most HD cams get jello-ish at speed when recorded at 1020p.

When using the AVS Video Editor (there's a free version you can upload. it just leaves a watermark on your finished vid for a few seconds during play), make sure the aspect ratio is not at 4:3. AVS is very similar with Windows Movie Maker in terms of template, tool bar and editing tools. It's so easy to use.

Now I just need a faster laptop and more free time to really get playful with editing.

I put this one together last night rather too hastily. I was getting sleepy.
http://www.vimeo.com/20190783

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Department of Good Times

looks great!


damn, AVS doesn't support mac.

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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

If your camera uses the MOV format, you should still be okay. You only need to be concerned with the video format when deciding where you ultimately want to circulate the video since they're just containers. Whether your video is MOV, MP4, or AVS, neither of these have any affect on the quality of the video - that is the job of the codec. If you're on Mac forums, then the MOV format is perfect. If you're not, then you can just convert to a non-Mac format.

You can also try changing the file extension from .MOV to .MP4 or whatever you want to use so you can edit your videos on non-Mac video editing software. This is what I did. ContourHD editing on Windows Movie Maker.

OK, So i just got back from Best Buy with the new GoPro Hero 2. Has anybody used the slow motion feature and what edit program did you use to play around with it. I see on the Go Pro website they have really awesome slow motion shots. But how ?

I know there are lots of you Video Junkies out there, any help would be great.

Thanks

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your GoPro2 wont work with the slow motion function, or at all for that matter (they all have a 'bug' in the software)....luckily my GoPro1 works just fine, i will be a nice guy today and trade you straight across.
also, i will save you the trouble of PMing me so I have sent you a PM...

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'the notorious North County Sancho'

Oh sweet, what a nice guy you are. I'm down for the trade, but i must be honest and warn you first, there was just a little bit of a mishap, nothing to be worried about really. I'm sure no real damage was done, In fact with all the 'Bugs' in the software it probably improved it. Well i kinda just dropped it on my first run with out the waterproof cover on, I mean i wouldn't say that's to bad really, it's a pretty sturdy little beast of a cam. But it fell in a Wet/muddy/steam sort of area while it was on. The light went out but i'm sure it's still good?

So if your still down for the straight trade?

Any way just think about it

Stu

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Not sure why you said the slo mo wont work? You just have to know how to use it I think and it will work. Just got a gopro hero2 this weekend, a chest mount as well because its just about the only perspective that I enjoy. I have no knowledge of video editing, but I am hoping to get into it a little bit and really put my gopro to use.


Has anyone used the $80 adobe premiere "elements" instead of the full version that costs like $500 or something?? Hoping to get some kind of decent editing software on my PC. Looking forward to seeing some sick vids! Peace

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I need to ride more! I like going fast, I get kind of burly, and I hate riding uphill....Who's down to ride?